Nancy Howard

Nancy Woodside Howard of Houston, Texas, died May 6, of brain cancer. She was 74.

Formerly of Livermore, Howard was born Sept. 8, 1936, in El Paso, Texas, where she grew up. She attended Dudley School and El Paso High School. Howard was raised at the Smelter Terrace in El Paso, where her father was the manager of America Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO).

As a child, she shared her father’s interest in rocks and minerals. This interest would last a lifetime and developed into her career as a geoscientist. She received her bachelor’s degree cum laude in earth sciences from Radcliffe College at Harvard University. It was there, in a geology class, that she met her husband Jack. They married after her graduation in 1957.

Over the years, Howard’s career touched on several cutting-edge specialties. Her first job after college was working at ASARCO’s Central Research Laboratories in New Jersey. Years later, while living in California, she became the associate program leader of the Nuclear Test Containment Program at LLNL.

After returning to Texas in the mid-1980s, she worked with petroleum researchers studying the mobility of fluids in reservoir rocks using the then blossoming technology of nuclear magnetic resonance. She later switched her professional focus to environmental consulting.

Howard was both a registered professional geologist and a registered environmental assessor.

In retirement, she stayed busy as a member of the board of directors and then vice president of the Nottingham Municipal Utility District of Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

She contributed to the addition of groundwater reserves and water production for the district; and of her participation in the preservation of a large undeveloped land parcel as a community park.

She and her husband enjoyed traveling. After his death, she continued to travel.

In addition to her professional career, Howard also was an involved mother and grandmother, as well as an accomplished homemaker and hostess. She also had an exceptional talent for the culinary. She and her husband Jack were a team -- she as chef and he as sous chef. They organized a neighborhood dinner group that was known for its culinary progressiveness, especially in the 1970s.

She is survived by her three children: Thomas of Houston; Katharine Crawford and husband Mark of Orinda, Calif.; John and wife Amy of Frisco, Texas; and five grandchildren. She also is survived by her siblings Elizabeth Welch of Niceville, Fla..; and John Woodside of Midland, Texas.

She was predeceased in death by her husband of 51 years, John Hall “Jack” Howard in 2009; her father Thomas James Woodside; and her mother Lena McDonald Woodside.

A graveside service for Howard took place May 16 in El Paso, Texas. Donations may be made in Howard’'s name to the Houston Symphony, 615 Louisiana St., #102, Houston, TX. 77002.